A survey conducted by the Times Mirror Research Center for the People & the Press in the early 1990s found that newspaper readers tended to be more critical of the content of new media than they were of traditional media. The study found that newspaper readers believed that newspapers had to change in order to remain relevant, and that if print magazines were offered online, users would not pay for them. The results of this survey were not surprising, but they are not encouraging either.
Towards traditional media
Pew found that only about four out of 10 U.S. adults trust most news from social media, including the internet. Only one in five Americans trust the news they get from public broadcasters. And the decline in trust of traditional media has only been exacerbated by political polarisation. This suggests that people are turning back to traditional media, but are not necessarily choosing them more frequently. Even if they are no longer able to read a newspaper, they still want to stay informed about the news they need.
Some people prefer
In a recent survey, Pew found that most people continue to value watchdog journalism, and they still have a high regard for the news in general. While a Pew survey showed that people primarily get national news from television and the internet, the opposite held true for local newspapers and weeklies. In the study, it was found that nearly half of the respondents spent at least 40 minutes per week reading their local newspaper, and that they preferred the print edition over the online version.
Newspaper subscriptions
Although it is hard to say whether the news will be more accessible through digital or mobile media, it is important to note that the number of people who subscribe to newspapers is decreasing. More than half of all respondents in the UK and Argentina report that they read their newspapers more often than their preferred alternative. This is a worrying trend. If newspapers are going to lose readers, it may be time to consider returning to the print media.
The number previous decades
In a recent survey, the number of people who trust the news media was much higher than in the previous decade. It was the opposite in the UK and Argentina, where the percentage of people who trust the news more than other countries has increased by 20 points. The average change was 12 percent. So, in the UK, despite these findings, the public still shows a distrust for the media.
Conclusion
In the United States, less than four in ten people trust their news sources the majority of the time. The same figures were true in Argentina, where two-thirds of respondents reported getting their news from social media. But while the numbers may be different for other countries, the trend is similar in most countries. If we look at the UK and Argentina, the data indicates that the British people have more trust in print than in new media.
